She
by Darker than Grey
Summary: Short moments in time between the Warrior of Light and Thancred spanning all of ARR. Slight unhealthy relationship.


She was quite pretty.

Would quite pretty be it not for the one singular feature that stood out most of all. Those eyes. A sharp, deep red that encompassed all. They were the kind of eyes that pierced through you till you could not see anything else but them. Barring the eyes, her features were beautiful, if not plain. Clear skin, soft, rounded face, shapely brows with a perpetual look of worried-ness. Thick white hair that fell in elegant curls around her shoulders. From what could be seen from underneath the thick robes announcing her status as a white mage, a soft curvaceous figure that would make her a fine specimen if not for the eyes that held her back. She was silent as he took her in. She had been entirely quiet throughout the entire encounter, moving herself to protect the disguised Sultana behind her and sending out warm healing magic that washed over him every time he failed to dodge the sharp claws of the Voidsent before them. Their eyes met and he struggled to look away. This was a rare occurrence. Usually, it was the woman that would be grasping for a thing to say in response to his flirtations. He shook himself out of his reverie and continued with the encounter. They had a runaway Sultana on their hands, after all. At a later date, when they were to meet again as he suspected, he would inquire as to why a white mage was out adventuring and rescuing nobles, passing out from the aether while casting powerful healing magics born from it.

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

Meet again they soon did.

On several occasions. A rock golem no doubt summoned by an Ascian was felled expertly by her within a few minutes of it being summoned. The minute scratches her creamy pale skin sustained were healed after a brief wave of her fingers over the afflicted area. He would have thought her out for a peaceful stroll was it not for the collapsed workers around her and the bead of sweat running down her brow. After another brief interaction, he bid her farewell.

Though it would not be for long.

He was sat at the bar of a small inn within the city, ear poised for any information that might be available when she strolled in. Perfectly at ease. The thick robes and boots from before were replaced with a grey dress and leather sandals with a slight heel, jeweled circlet nowhere to be seen. She met eyes with him and he once again struggled to look away. Pink, full lips quirked to the side, and her brows raised from their worried expression to that of amusement.

"Tell me, _Thancred,_ do you stare at every woman you encounter as you do with me?" He was taken aback. The impartial looks he had received before in their encounters were gone. There was something so disarming about seeing her this way, nose gently kissed from her time in the sun, thin clothing and sandals. The pale expanse of her leg by his as she sat down elegantly on a stool beside him. Her entire being the bane of his. He quickly looked away from the creamy thigh that he had been enraptured by only to catch her eye. A mischevious sparkle within the crimson depths. it was downright _sinful. _She **knew** what she was doing to him. It had been a while since he had the time to wind down and have some fun. He might as well oblige.

"Only those as beautiful as yourself."

"I do believe it's time to vacate the lower floors of this establishment."

The morning came all too soon, with the aftermath of tangled limbs and sheets fresh in their mind.

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

After all was said and done, after she had joined the scions, is when things changed between them.

Their first meetings aside, it was _contenting _to be around her. Even as he trecked through Thanalan beside her, they had brief conversations. Coy attempts at flirtation on his end were returned on hers. Jokes were shared in the fleeting moments she spoke with her mouth and not with her eyes or through gestures. They were steadily becoming friends. Then she was taken captive by the Amaal'ja and he was late. Had the circumstances been different, he would have lost her. Lost her before he even truly had her. The Immortal Flames had lost comrades because they did not have what she had. The Echo that kept her safe because he was too late to do the same. He had seen time and time again that even though she was a healer, she had not slacked in the learnings of magic to harm, but he couldn't help but feel the guilt. He watched as she healed those that had been hurt in the rescue, expression grim as she looked over those tempered. An angry burn that had eaten through her robes and licked up her side that could not be healed in one session was slathered in an ointment she had created and wrapped in bandages. Then they returned to the Waking Sands. The expression of horror on her usually stoic face as she learned of the fates of those tempered would stay with him for quite some time, even as it was replaced by one of pleasure as she came undone beneath him later that night.

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

He threw himself into his work.

W brief respites in between, he told himself that coming to her for space within her warm arms was enough. She obliged every time he asked when they were both at the Scion's base of operations at the same time. Stealing away to the nearby inn for a night here and there, skin against skin until he had no choice but to sleep. He found comfort within those arms, but not enough. There was still the guilt. Guilt for using her like this, guilt at letting those men die, guilt for not being enough. Until a being invaded him and he could no longer access his body. His mind was still functioning, but he was disconnected to everything that happened around him. Something other than him walking him back to the sands, someone other than him smiling at her when she came up to him, something other than him using her. After each session that they had, Thancred would always stay. It was the gentlemanly thing to do. This thing controlling his body did not. Lahabrea left each time, disconnecting the two of them in her mind. She stopped offering his body succor, something he was eternally grateful for. At least he was not doomed to watch someone other than him bring her to her peak.

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

It used his knowledge to kill them.

They were all dead. Minfillia, Papalymo, Urianger, and Tataru had been taken prisoner, but he could only assume everybody else was dead. Livia sas Junias was not a merciful creature. If they were at the Waking Sands when the attack happened, then they were dead. He could only pray that Y'shtola and Her's assignment had taken them a long enough time to not be there. Yda was for once apart from Papalymo, so there was a chance there as well, but he wouldn't know. He was trapped and powerless.

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

He saw the utter devastation on her face.

Lahabrea lowered his hood as they escaped for that reason alone. To break her. As loathe as she would be to admit it, she had grown to depend on their encounters to help her with the stress of being as well known as she was. After they stopped and he was no longer in control, he would catch the longing glances she would send his way, regret for what they had lost. He wouldn't call it love. He couldn't. Love in their line of work would end badly, as it already had. With that, she turned away. Minfillia placed a hand on her shoulder, and for not the first time, he _screamed._

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

This would be the final encounter. She had powered through. A small white mage against Gaius, a small woman with piercing eyes against the ultimate magic. She had Hydaelyn, but would it be enough? Lahabrea summoned his magic. She held up her staff. She was wearing those robes. The thick ones with the red trim, made specifically for her. Blessed by A-Towa-Cant. She who had saved the forests of Gridania. She who had felled Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda. She who would now save him no matter the cost. Inside, he smiled. He had used her, but so had she, had she not? The had leaned on each other throughout this, though she did not realize it. Pain filled his body. _Pain filled his body._

And then the world was dark.

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

He woke to her.

Asleep at his bedside, staff laid on the floor. Aether cloyed the room, telling of the powerful magic she had cast to bring him back from the beating she had given his body. Wincing in pain, he lifted his arm to tuck a lock of white hair behind her ear, and then drifted off once more, only just conscious enough to notice to the crimson eyes that fluttered open, the kiss on his cheek, and the lithe body that crawled up beside him as he wrapped his arm around her.

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

His eyes could hardly leave hers.

The entire celebration was taking entirely too long, made only better by the soft smiles reserved just for him, the conversations between him and the rest of the scions, uncaring of the being previously residing within him. A brief scolding from Her and Minfillia and Y'shtola was all he had received. They would work together on better habits, he had been told. As if he were a child, but, he supposed, he had deserved that at the least. The three leaders spoke, and he decided to do his best to listen. This peace that had been achieved by the Warrior of Light he would surely enjoy by her side. She took a seat beside him as the speech began. She was bored with it as well. He met her eyes. Like before, they captured him, but this time it was different. What they had wasn't love, but it wasn't friendly either. It was grey like the hairs that had sprung up in between the white of her hair at the roots, it was grey like the dress she had worn that first night. And then a soldier came running from the hills screaming of a Primal. There really was no end, was there?

* * *

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

* * *

After all was said and done, she helped him retire to his quarters. He could walk just fine due to the wonderful job at healing him she had done, but he obliged her all the same. As he laid down, be beckoned her to join him. She quirked her brow, a question, to which he simply shook his head. None of that tonight. Just rest. She obliged him. There were many words that needed to be said, many words that could come another night. For now, He would simply bask in her presence.


End file.
